The full-body swimsuits, dubbed burkinis, which cover the whole body apart from the hands, feet and face, could be actually helpful in providing education to Muslim girls, as they actually allow them to take part in the swim classes - something they would otherwise be forbidden to participate in largely due to the religious views of their parents, the Minister for Family Affairs Franziska Giffey told the German Die Zeit daily.
"The most important thing is the well-being of the children and that includes being able to swim," she said, explaining her stance on the issue. The minister then called wearing burkinis during school swim classes "justifiable" and pragmatic, praising an approach taken by one school in Western Germany that bought some 20 burkinis using money from some "private donations" and has been handing them out to its female Muslim pupils since at least 2016, the local media revealed. Some 15 people used the free garments over that period, according to reports.
The practice had provoked brief criticism from the regional authorities. However, the family affairs minister seems to have taken the debate to a new level, as her words provoked a wave of outrage, both from politicians and people on social media.
'Wrong signal' & 'modern family policy turned on its head'
Burkinis cement a "misogynistic understanding in a place where children and teenagers are supposed to learn the opposite," the German Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner said, assailing her fellow cabinet member. North Rhine-Westphalia's regional integration deputy minister, Serap Gueler, also slammed Giffey's approach, saying that she sent out "the wrong signal" and adding that her views represent a "misunderstanding of tolerance."
Even Giffey's predecessor as mayor of Berlin's borough of Neukoelln, a post she had held before becoming a minister, called her words "nonsense.""Promoting" an approach which actually involves "total sexualization of women" and projecting this view on girls as young as six or ten years old, "turns any modern family policy on its head," Neukoelln's former mayor, Heinz Buschkowsky, who is considered to be Giffey's political mentor, said, lambasting the minister in a guest piece for the Bild daily.
People on social media seem to be also mostly siding with Giffey's critics. "Mrs Giffey, integration does not work in such a way! That is the wrong path," one person wrote in a Twitter post.
Comment: Hopefully, one day the Muslim population of Europe will integrate enough to European culture so as to get rid of things like the burkini. But in the meantime, it is true that wearing certain clothes cannot be forced upon them - just as 'equality' cannot be forced upon societies except at a very high price. This is because for the majority of Muslims the burka is not misogynistic, but rather a sign of modesty and decency. So it is indeed a pragmatic temporary solution for Muslim girls to be allowed to use it.